Thetownend.com

The opponent:  Doncaster Rovers

Well, the last 2 weeks seem to have dragged by in football terms. A largely uneventful couple of weeks at the County Ground will hopefully have  given the team plenty of time to prepare for the visit of today’s opposition, Doncaster Rovers, managed by Welsh forward, and ex-scummer Dean Saunders. Formed like ourselves, in 1879, ‘Donny’ turned professional some 6 years later and have spent a majority of their existence in the two lowest tiers of English football. If we thought we had boardroom issues in the past it is well worth looking into the conduct of former majority shareholder Ken Richardson back in the 90’s. During the early 90s, Ken Richardson, who was later described by detectives as "the type that would trample a two-year-old child to pick up a 2p bit", took over as the majority shareholder of the club. He ploughed a lot of money into Doncaster Rovers with one thing on his mind, a new stadium. When he was refused a new stadium by the council he soon lost interest. Richardson hired three men to torch Belle Vue and planned to sell the ground to developers. The attempt put Richardson in jail for four years, ruined Belle Vue and Rovers were edging closer to relegation. In 1998 Rovers dropped out of the league with a −83 goal difference. He withdrew his financial backing and as a result the club was subject to an administration order. The better players left to ease some of the financial burden but unfortunately, the players who were left at Rovers were just not up to the task. The fans blamed Richardson for effectively destroying Rovers and even a funeral was held at Belle Vue on the last game of the 1997/98 season complete with coffin along Carr House Road. Just weeks after Rovers were relegated, Richardson was found guilty of trying to set fire to the Rovers ground, apparently hoping to pay off the clubs debts with the insurance money. Diamandis?  Meh, amateur.

Doncaster, in South Yorkshire in the early 12th century, as a result of the Treaty of Durham,  became a possession of the King of Scotland as part of the peace treaty, the transfer of authority is thought to have never been formally reversed, so in theory, we are playing a Scottish team today.  Local MP for Doncaster Rovers is none other than the leader of The Labour Party, Ed Milliband, whether he has any interest in today’s outcome remains to be seen.  Down the years, Doncaster has always been an industrial part of Yorkshire. Mining played a massive part in the local economy, until the closures began in the 80’s, and during the Industrial Revolution, The Great Northern Railway established the Doncaster Locomotive and Carriage Building Works. Another famous company to hail from Doncaster was Parkinson’s, the creators of Murray Mints and Nuttalls Mintoes, and after 190 years of trading, Parkinson’s sold their titles on eBay to the highest bidder.

Doncaster itself has a population of around 70’000, one Doncastrian known to us at Swindon is former Pox teenage fiddler, Graham Rix, who has now been off the Sex Offenders register for some 3 years now and is managing the mighty Central FC of Trinidad and Tobago. As part of his rehabilitation it is thought he molests the islands Yak’s once a week.  Doncaster have also given us the inventor of the flushing toilet, Thomas Crapper, Top Gear irritant, Jeremy Clarkson, Footballing legend, Billy Bremner, Actor Brian Blessed, Crooner Tony Christie, one of the little turds from One Direction, and my personal favourite, William Hague.

What are they saying about us? –
 
“I really love that Magic Roundabout. Bloody ace thing it is. You can go any way you like - there's always, always an alternative route to wherever you're trying to get to.
Bloody scary first time I ever saw it though!”

“I hope our flash South West Exiles flag will be there”  
"We've got a manager, you've got a dicky bloke..."

http://www.drfc-vsc.co.uk/index.php?topic=235980.0

Doncaster Rovers Last 6 – LLWWWW (Currently 2nd on 39 points, level with Tranmere who are 1st)

The Threat – Dave Cotterill leads the way with 8 goals, Chris Brown has netted 7 so far this season. They also have Iain Hume on their books who is capable of scoring a few. Sammy Clingan and Robbie Blake are also on the books at Doncaster.

A Warm Welcome Too -  Doncaster’s number  8, Billy Paynter, who has hit the back of the net 5 times so far this season. Sods law says he scores today.

The irrelevant stats – There is no way of tarting it up, Donny’s away form is bloody good, and they have only lost once on their travels so far this season. Out of the 39 points accumulated, 23 of those have came away from The Keepmoat Stadium, at the same time they have scored 17 goals and only conceded 6, something of a formidable record. They have only failed to score once away from home, so we will need to be at our best if we are to have any hope of keeping a clean sheet.

Head to Head – There have only been 9 previous league encounters between us, Swindon having won 3, Doncaster 2 and 4 draws. The last time we met the game ended up in a 2-1 defeat with Simon Cox scoring the Town goal.

The Odds –   Swindon 4/5    Draw 13/5    Doncaster Rovers 10/3 (Bet 365)  Looks quite a big price for Rovers considering their away form. Fancy a 4-2 home victory? Coral are offering 80/1 on that, just a quid on it would be a fairly decent piss up, even in these times of Austerity.  The first goalscorer odds don’t really vary much from week to week, so an outside bet I may have a go on is Darren Ward to score 1st at 33/1. I think he has put some decent shifts in as of late and his recent goal may well be the confidence boost he appeared to so desperately need. Oddly enough, Donny’s top scorer, Cotterill, is currently 16/1 with Bet365 to score 1st and Paynter is around the 9/1 price!

Sid Says – I thought he may take a bit of coaxing this week, so I stole a bit of Ivy off the neighbours house. The stick insect world’s answer to Doris Stokes/Derek Acorah says 3-1 victory to the mighty Town.

The Prediction – Although the odds suggest otherwise, I think a tough encounter is on the cards. Saunders will have them set up well, they have a large, talented squad (and Paynter), so based on this, a 2-1 victory is on the cards, with goals from Ritchie and Ward in front of 7’722 (387 from oop north)

And Finally –   Doncaster were involved in the longest ever football match, against Stockport County on 30th March 1946. The second-leg of a Division Three (North) cup tie was tied at 2-2 after extra time so the referee decided to carry on until someone scored. After 203 minutes the game was finally stopped. Rovers won the replay 4-0.  Now I have heard of ‘Fergie Time’, but surely Howard Webb wasn’t around back then?

COYR COYR COYR

Good start as always Rosso, This is a toughy but we should and quite often do raise our game for the bigger matches. I'm predicting a 2-1 win. The worst part is I may have to miss a home game for the first time this season due to shortage of staff at work. I'll know for certain by mid morning so not lost all hope just yet.

Phone in sick, Norovirus is rife at this time of year  :)

Tell me about it, that's probably one of the reasons ill have to go in :(

2-0 Swindon, goals from Williams and Martin in front of 7,769 with 293 coming from Donny! C.O.Y.R!!!!

I have a good feeling about this. 2-1 Swindon. COYR

Very pissed right now but I say 2-1 town

Banker draw i reckon....Cotterill is a very good player at this level.

1-1..which given the form Donny are in will not be to bad a result.

Another good matchday thread start Shaw Rosso, bet you've been itching to do this!

I'm going for a 3-1 win as we seem to up our game aginst the better teams and i bet Paolo's beasted our lads these last couple of weeks! 8756 attendance with 435 from Donny.

Oi. Are you allowed 2 attendance predictions? Where you getting the extra 301 fans from? :-)

Donna why have you posted twice? Thats greedy

Lack of coffee and the excitment that football's back on! Rectified it now, no-one will know  :-[

It better be a vintage town performance. I am bringing a new graddy from work who is a Celtic fan now relocated to chippenham.

The fucker was threatening to watch the slave traders.

2-1 defeat. Paynter to score for them a cop a load of abuse from the Town End.

Did Austin shag his wife too?  :)

Get the first goal and we'll win. If not then it's another home draw or defeat.

We will get beat and I will get pissed

Strange odds from the bookies. Form definitely says away win. Which normally means a home win the way this league works. Maybe the bookies have got wise and started calling forms bluff?

They are flying at the moment.

A win would be massive for us. I would be happy with a draw.

10/3 on Donny seems very long. Would take a draw today after the longish layoff.

Tricky game! Draw would be a decent result but I'm hoping for a 2-1 victory

COYR

It's a toughy and I'll be cold if I can't find my hat.

Can't see past a defeat or draw.

 This is probably the first time that Donny have come here as the bigger club expected to win....we've a fairly poor record against the previous perennial strugglers....so makes it hard to call. Barn Door Billy's a major concern.

2-1.

Paynter obviously has to score.

Williams & Bostock for us.

Dean Saunders former scummer = bit of a cunt!

I'm hopeful for today. Their position should mean we take them seriously which is usually when we play better. Tad worried about how our back 4 will line up without Jay and Macca but confident whoever steps in is competent.

no such thing as a former scummer, once one, always one. Scored against us as well while he wore the yellow shitstain. Scored a hatrcick for Villa agaunst us in the Prem. Scummer and cunt.
I don;t see us winning this one. Slave Trader Cotterill is having a half decent season.

Apart from the finishing,we played well against Notts County and a similar performance today should see us win,3-1 Williams,Martin and an og

This has defeat written all over it. But these are the games we somehow manage to win!

Doncaster have only lost once on the road this season. 10/3 for them to win was to good to refuse

Town: Foderingham; Thompson N, Ward, Flint, Devera(capt); Ritchie, Bostock, Hollands, De Vita; Williams, Martin

Substitutes: Bedwell(GK), Archibald-Henville, Collins, Ferry, Roberts, Rooney A, Storey

hooray, can't wait to listen to the godawful shit commentary!

Init.

Keith Scott. The definition of journeyman:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Scott_(footballer)

who is this being interviewed? he sounds incredibly camp

Nathan Thompson it sounds like.

Yes Nathan T

think we've found the gay footballer Martin Samuel wanted

World is down for me... anyone else?

fine here

Sounding nice and clear here, for a change.

they've doubled the bandwidth by using both ISDN lines for once

Lets hope the random drop outs don't happen today then, I just wish we had a better commentary team TBH.

Donny commentary sounds ok

get in

i hope...the commentary has gone south

Woop woop

I THINK it was a goal :)

cunting hell

Doncaster commentary is working

Whoop

FFS

Ballbags

Not a goal then?

we scored then we scored at the wrong end

 so whats the score now

1-1

1-1

A'ternoon chaps! So who scored for and against us?

Ritchie scored for us and Hollands scored against us (OG)

Is Kevin Keegan playing?

Nah-he plays for Scunthorpe

...I take it Paynter aint playing,unless he's having an extremely quiet game

Martin hits crossbar - Second time in the half according to commentators

Nope. Not on the bench either. Number 22 is Paul Keegan though.

Sat in the departure lounge at Salzburg airport listening on free wifi, Snowing like fook outside.

half-time entertainment!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNJMCZvzM2E

Collins is better than Martin

Town have been much the better side and should be at least one goal up.

Martin should definitely have scored, when he hit the bar.

We started well & got in front only to gift them a goal, game went a bit flat for a while but Town got on top towards the find of the half.

A couple of nicely worked free kicks, the second of which led to Martin hitting the bar.

We need to get at them early in the second half

S
Totally agree.  Martin looks disinterested and is bloody lazy.  Should have scored.

Hollands also offers nothing.  Why he's playing in front of Ferry is beyond me.

Agree-but Di Canio would look a bit silly if he didnt pick the loan players he kept banging on about during the embargo.

Come on you reds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGijLHpNibk

Salzburg nice place. Try the Wiener Snitzel, different gravy :nod:

Haha, I'm here every few weeks anyway.  I have the WielSnitzel at Paul Stubins everytime I come here. Nice!

why do opposition keepers have blinders gainst us  :cry:

This is sounding like target practice

Don't know if its been mentioned on another thread, but QPR equal our record of games without a Premiership victory. The monkey will be off our back in 15 mins :clap:

This is not going to be a happy weekend is it?

No, no, it isn't, a glimmer of hope is all we ask for

excitment excitment excitment groan

Roberts is not as disappointed as us!

Is Roberts really shit?

It would appear so

Gary Roberts has been such a disappointment! Personally look for a new wide man in January as I can't remember him doing anything of note at all this season?

Prove me wrong now you cunt.

On the face of it, this will be a good point, but I am terribly deflated

Shots equalise against Pox. Forever in our shadow :smugfu:

have any of our permanent signings this summer really impressed or lived up to expectations?

serious question, by the way.

Williams for one?

Collins is the one I truly felt would excel. Majorly (is that a word?) dissapointed.

Prob not, but we're hardly struggling in the league. If we were in the bottom half of the table then it would be an issue, but we're not even halfway through the season yet.

good shout but seems a tad injury prone.

Ward is the only other player we've signed, loan or otherwise, who has really made an impact.

On a happier note:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTMYzgrXA7M

Seems ages since I compiled this

Shit me lads, the match is nearly over and there are only 6 pages of thread?

Sounds like a boring one.

Very boring!

post apocolyptic meltdown on bbc swindon coming up

Booooooooooooooooooooooo !

excruciatingly dull

At the fear of being whooshed, I sounded like a great game on the Donny commentary.

They just said it's the best they've ever seen their goalie play for them

4 goals in 21 games is not a good return-know he works hard tho

Typical

I'm going to run a hot bath and put the Smiths on nice and loud

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfkvPnjb9hs

Before the game would have taken a point.

Seemed as though we bossed it however and should have won so therefore I'm in a shit mood.

Off to the SU  :pint:

Listening to the Swindon commentary it did sound boring, but then it usually does with Alan mac on coms, it obviously wasn't but it did come accross a bit dull.

Someone just praised Alan Mac right up!!!

That seems to have happened a few times this season.  Final ball and finishing once again pathetic and another 2 points dropped that should have easily been ours.  I don't think Foderingham had a save to make.

It certainly wasn't a dull game though.

On the radio you just cannot get a good idea of the game, especially so when listeing to our own commentary team.

From chances alone it seemed to have been a good game for us with a lack of finishing the key.

Why the criticism of Alan Mac, the guy is immune from it for his service to the club

Well they drew 2-2 so the record is not longer ours :D

I'll drink to that, the monkey has scampered off

just criticising his commentary skills,which are lacking Im afraid

I won't criticise him for his playing history but his commentary skills are lacking IMO and several others.

Your second sentence has summed the game up in a nutshell.  Disappointing that once again our finishing has let us down.  I'm not sure where Di Canio goes from here tbh.  All of the strikers, either permanent or loan seem unable to find the net.

Adore that era, the man could shit on my chrimbo tree and it would make for a nice decoration

I hear Charlie Austin is available for the right fee :D

Rafa saying "a wee slice of cake". Highlight of the day

he has such a fucked up accent, it's hilarious

It's even more noticeable when switching between commentary teams.

There was one opposition commentary team recently that irritated the shit out of me. One of them was like a cross between Terry Christian and David Brent. Couldn't stand the irritating little fucker.

Having had enough I decided to switch back to good 'ole BBC wilts only to listen to Alan Mac moaning. I was persistent and switched between the two a few times and each time it was Alan Mac just moaning every bloody time.

In the end I chose to stick with Terry Brent.

Frustrating game. Highlights were Bostock, De Vita and the back 4. All others could have done better.

Dissapointed by Donnny, who never even considered winning. Their perogative I know, but I'd have hoped a side in second would have shown more intent

PDC interview:
- Disappointed as we always want to win.
- Unfortunately not disappointed with the players as he's been saying for months that he does not have players who can score enough
- They tried their best and he has tried to encourage them. He told them 90% of them were fantastic
- He wanted a 'nasty striker' a month and 1/2 ago but cant get one now
- The positive is that the players have improved and done as they are told. We didn't give the ball away.
- When you have 62 balls into the box then you should be able to score 2 goals!
- Not saying he can't get any more out of the players.
- He used Williams as an example saying that he can't fault his commitment or desire but the injury has set him back. He seemed to suggest that Williams problems are in his head rather than with technique as they have worked hard in training, but he doesn't reproduce goal scoring form on the pitch.
- Talked a lot about realistic goals for the season being mid table
- Gary Roberts disappointed PDC today
- Devera, Flint & Thompson have done very well and improved, 'especially where they have come from'. PDC is happy for those 3. But they still need to improve to be top league 1 players. They did well not to buckle after the OG
- Sad for the team as we deserved to win
- Frustrating that we always create chances and are have had a chance of winning nearly every game we've played this year (But the fact is that we don't score enough)
- PDC is not giving up and wants to finish top 8 if possible

DeVita:
- Frustrating because he believes that we are one of the best teams in the league
- It can't be bad luck as its happened too many times
- Sides making it difficult at County Ground, but today Doncaster didnt offer enough to get anything out of the game
- We have decent players all over the park and just need to keep working hard in the week and hopefully the goals will come
- Martin has taken a while to get fit, because he hasn't played much. But you can see that he comes from a higher league club

Flint:
-Team did well. Solid at the back
- Defended as a unit, starting from the front
- OG was unfortunate
- We had plenty of chances but didnt finish them
- Frustrated dressing room
- Glad to be back and am enjoying it. Wants to train hard and play as much as possible
- First sending off was 2 silly yellow cards. Second wouldnt have been a red card 5 years ago
- Flint needs to stand up a bit more, but is a physical player and wont change that

Only one team was ever going to score today, and so it proved. Doncaster came for a draw and except from a couple of sorties down their left looked about as attacking as Switzerland in a world war.

Martin (?) should have buried the ball that his the crossbar.

But overall a good performance for us. Still struggling to create an absolute cleat cut chance, but did well enough.

If Williams, who didn't have a poor game, bottles tackling the keeper one on one again I'm going to introduce Charlie Austin to his Mrs.

Devera:
- Good moment to be captain
- Found out 30 mins before the game
- Captained Barnet for 1/2 season before.
- No different for him being captain. Didn't let the extra responsibility affect him
- Disappointing result
- Happy to be playing even if out of his preferred position
- Doesn't feel that he has cemented his spot, but he has worked hard to try to improve
- Blow that Jay Mc is injured. Devera thought he was coming to form
- Ward has been solid
(God that was painful interview for Chris Wise!!!!)

Oh, and the Celtic fan I took bought 2 Town tops for his younger twin brothers. Result.

Really enjoyed that segment on the radio harking back to the QPR game

Disappointed with that, but in a good way! Much improved and how the hell did we not score a second I will never know...woodwork twice, Gary Roberts miss, Joe Dev header straight at keeper 2nd half to name just a few! De Vita had his best game in a Town shirt IMO! Not sure there is anything more to add.

Need a finisher if we are to hit top six....if not its mid table.

I actually enjoyed that game, we did everything right except put the ball in the back of the net on at least five occasions!!  Thought Bostock had a great game and controlled the midfield, Hollands was a good foil for him.  Defence did well, although Donny weren't really very ambitious at all.  Downside for me were the three substitutions, brought nothing to the party and if anything weakened us, especially Roberts coming on for De Vita.  RDV was voted man of the match but I am not sure if that was the correct decision, it would have been Bostock for me, closely followed by Hollands and Devera.

Good game, decent performance by every player except Roberts.

Not overly concerned about number of chances missed, I'd have been more concerned if we weren't making chances. With a little luck we would have comfortably won today.

Donny were bizarre, first 5-10 mins they knocked it around nicely and looked decent. After that they did absolutely naff all.

Agree on most of the comments on here. If only we were more clinical. Thought Richie was superb today too. His crossing brought most of our chances....

Promising performance that, should of been dead and buried by half time, but it just wasn't meant to be.
Thought every player had a cracking game except for the obvious Gary Roberts, he really has been as useful as blue eye shadow for Smurfette.
Raffa deserved the man of the match, although Bostock ran the show and could be argued was our best player, it just shows how much Raff has improved.
Thought Donny were decent at what they intended, and those intention were made clear when they had 6 defenders on near the end.

We were by far the better team and how the fuck Donny are up there I don't know. MOM for me was Ritchie who seemed really up for the game. Bostock and Rafa were also good as were the back 4 apart from nathan in the first 10. Our strikers were poor. Williams totally bottled it with their keeper. In fact, i'm struggling to think of a bigger bottling moment. if he didn't fancy it then at least fall over the keeper and see what the ref gives. What the fuck was roberts doing when the ball came to him in the box. Fuck knows how much time he needs - a real disappointment of a signing. I thought we dodged a bullet with Holmes only to walk into a fucking ambush. Martin should have buried the chance that hit the bar.At this moment I'd happilly drive Roberts to any club he wants in january while also happy to trade any of our strikers bar Story.

Roberts got the ball stuck under his feet. It happens. Martin's miss was worse.

I think Roberts is a good player with 0 confidence, though he's not shown it. The problem he has is that he has played poorly for too long, now every mistake he makes is magnified and lamented.

I was really excited pre season when I saw us at WSM.  Roberts and Jay Mac seemed to be capable of having the same sort of understanding as Caddis and Richie on the right.  Thought we'd be tearing the league a new one.

Im usually wrong.

Think this pretty much sums up Roberts at the moment. I still think he's a decent player - just not worked (at all) for him yet. He needs to get his mojo back from somewhere. Not sure how but then that's Paolo's job!

Roberts just needs too much time to do anything and he isn't going to get it., whether its confidence, too many injuries or whatever he just isn't sharp enough. Is a shame as I thought we'd signed a quality player. I'd give Rafa a run - he deserves it. We're carrying too many players this season.,

I really want Gary Roberts to come good, but he looks like he can't be fucked.

Sort it out Gary.

Moaning cunt sat behind me kept singing Simon Ferry songs, if you are going to sing at least get the fucking words right.

I thought we bossed the game and Bostock was my MOM. How we didnt score another i'll never know. Most amusing to see their GK looked to have a phobia of kicking the ball out of his hands.

I'd agree with the Gary Roberts "good player, no confidence" diagnosis.

Caddis was single out by Five Live in the Birmingham game this evening. Oh what could have been!

Just got back, popped in to see family after the game.

Although really frustrated, as has been commented several times on here already we should have won that game comfortably. However, it was a much better performance & at least we tried to play it on the floor.

Agree with most, Rafa deserved his MoM, I was shocked & disappointed when he was subbed, I thought we lost our momentum as Roberts is really struggling for any sort of form at the moment.  Full of praise for the whole team today, although I think Williams needs a goal again, his follow up to Martin's header against the post was weak & he totally bottled the chase with the keeper, where I thought he was there first?  The og was as soft as I've seen & I may be wrong but I don't think any Donny player was near Hollands?

Richie was back to his best & Bostock showed some class, but although the back 4 played really well today, I was really pleased for Joe Devera, who has been solid in the middle recently, thought he covered LB brilliantly.

Looking forward to Oldham, someones going to get a thrashing when the strikers click, may as well be next week!

Agreed, a good performance. Just a silly OG and a bit wasteful in front of goal.
He was clear favourite to get there, he has pace, but he seemed to slow up when he saw the keeper was coming out. Getting an injury in the back of his mind?


Having seen the replay he had lots of time and space, but had he left it there was a Donny player rushing in behind him that would probably have smacked it home. Hollands couldn't have known he was there mind..

Thought we played really well and bossed the game, should have had it sewn up by half time though. Martin (or was it Hollands?) was unlucky with the header but really should have scored the one that hit the bar. We got awful narrow once Roberts came on. Fucking hate that people behind me have made their minds up about him being utter shit (although the most vocal of those people is a fucking dirty Lids fan). The bloke looks completely drained of confidence and the fat fuck at the back of the DRS that had a go at him when he was out doing running on the pitch can get to fuck.

Another dissapointing result yesterday against a poor Donny side in my opinion. Not sure how they're 2nd but I guess they've been winning games like yesterday by being tight at the back and getting the odd goal away from home.

We played a lot better than we have in most games at home this season. We should have had 4 or 5 goals pretty easily but sometimes you just don't get the luck. Hollands OG was horrific luck for us but I still thought we'd go on to win after that but not to be I guess.

Would love to sign Bostock in January. I think he is quality at CM and exactly what we've missed in that position. I'm still unsure on Hollands as when Miller and Navarro are back to full fitness I fail to see what he offers us over them. Shame to see Williams bottle that chance with the keeper. The early season Williams would have buried that. I really rate him but the injuries have hampered him and his form. Hopefully he gets it back soon.

And don't get me started on Roberts. What a waste of space he is becoming. Any other player on the pitch would have buried that with the time and space he had. He looks lazy and largely uninterested. He clearly had talent but he's not producing at the moment and he seems to get worse each time I see him play. New winger in January is needed if he doesn't improve.

If only.  That is exactly the sort of player we need, someone who can find the back of the net.  If we had that we'd be ripping this league apart.


I know.  I lost count of the number of times yesterday that Ritchie was crying out for some support or the overlap.

On Sky they stated that Swindon's loss is Birmingham's gain!!  He looked cool, calm and assured yesterday and his overlaps were just like we were used to seeing.  Have Brum got the money to buy him in the January window?

You've pretty much summed up my thoughts exactly! Said all of this when recording the washbag podcast last night. Give it a listen when it becomes available today if you want to listen to your long lost football soul-mate!

Not sure how much truth in it but I was told Roberts has said that until he came here he was never injured or had problems. At the start of the season he looked a different class and is definitely a shadow of that now. Hope he can turn it around for his and our sake.

Lost didn't they,never got all the fuss about Caddis....decent player no doubt but he had plenty of chances to cement a place at Swindon...for his own reasons he decided he wanted away.
Not all fans view no doubt but i for one was/is disapointed on how he went about things,just smacked of when the going got tough,he got going.
Where as someone like Devera who took some nasty stick of the fans a while back on and off the pitch decided to get his head down and he is now reaping the rewards and playing good football.
I really didnt see much evidence of the Caddis,Ritchie partnership being overly good....as with all ex/ current town players i wish him well where ever he ends up.

Caddis is a cunt.

Got told he didnt even want to be here last season, let alone this.

Oh it must be a hard life bringing up a baby and doing a bit of running. Everyone else gets on with it.

I know nothing about Caddis the man, although his on field demeanour was always exemplary (and he pissed off Jabba, which is terrific) so won't comment on the other things...

But this is either selective memory or a very strange opinion, Ritchie/Caddis down the right was the reason we won games more often than not last year and it's no coincidence that Ritchie hasn't been quite as good without him. We had a fairly significant blip when Caddis was out injured last season, and again, Ritchie didn't perform as well in that time.

you can probably add Ferry to that equation - most of our good play went through that triangle.

Fair point.

This caddis thing does my tits.Tell me exactly how him being in the team is going to make our strikers start scoring goals.

All those amazing crosses that he put in to the box. Oh wait.

I know most clubs have their fair share of loanees at any one time, but whenever we get loan players in the team's form seems to go all to shit.

The problem with loanees, especially when the manager has been banging on about having to bring someone in, is that he has to play them even if they are inferior to what we already have.

Leaving out Ferry to accommodate Hollands seemed perverse to me - as was Collins out for Martin.

If there is to be much in the way of player movement in January I hope it's the current loanees sent back and any new players are permanent signings

Ferry was injured during the week.

I was encouraged by yesterday as the performance was a lot better than previous weeks. Bostock I thought started a lot of our good moves by getting the ball down and generally tidying things up. Normally in previous weeks it had ended up with teams playing hoofball to each other with the odd game of head tennis. Although we drew if we keep playing like that the goals will most certainly come and we will win more than we lose. Don't really understand the Criticism if Williams as in previous weeks we had looked devoid upfront and this week we had ample chances with Williams always looking to attack their defence. He should have done better but again if he keeps creating chances the goals will come. Devitta I thought was superb yesterday and bring on Roberts for him was a mistake. Also agreed with what some else said with regards to our subs weakening us. After the third sub they seemed to start coming back at us a bit. Don't know if anyone else notices this but after the game Roberts came back out on the pitch with one of our coaches and started doing some runs. A few of our supporters in the drs shouted a few less than encouraging comments. Starting to feel a bit sorry for the fella as I think pdc's fitness regime and his age are not producing the best from him. It's just one of those moves that does not work out. The performance is encouraging for the rest of the season though if we can keep it up.

Spot on

Correct.  It's just an excuse for some people to moan about something

We looked better going forward last year with him in the side. The doesn't = score more goals.

He has moved on to better things. Good luck to him.

To be truthful,if any team in league one had Austin they would be ripping this division apart

Just seen the highlights, it's cut tight but Thompson looks very much at fault for their goal.

I thought we were decent yesterday, just couldn't get the second goal.

I agree that Thompson was at fault for their goal, not too much Holland's could do about it, and I thought he looked good, especially with the ball.

Bostock ran the game, and I thought De Vita played very well too.

Doncaster were a horrible side, never intended to try and win the game and they shouldn't have.

But still positive to completely outplay the team in 2nd place.

What I didn't realise, and what was in no way evident from yesterday's performance, was that Doncaster had the best away record in league 1.

Where was barn door Billy* for them? Injured I assume ?

* Can't remember who named him that, I like it.

On leave because his Nan popped her clogs.

Oh, that's not so good :(

Anyone know any origin for 'pop your clogs'?

A quick google suggests pawning (pop) your cloggs (warn by poor millers)  in order to pay for a funeral, i.e. someone pawning cloggs as they don't need them any more because they are dead.

But why would you pawn them, surely the family wouldn't buy them back again.

Thats right Batch. They were saying on the radio yesterday that Donny were struggling for numbers because of a virus had hit the squad this week. Think I'm right in saying they have only lost one away game and have only failed to score once away from home. With those stats I wouldn't imagine they normally play so defensively. You would have to say under the circumstances we would of probably done the same and been happy with the point.

If Thompson doesn't get skinned, the o.g doesn't happen, but Hollands dealt with it worse than Risser at Wembley - just put your fucking foot through it, man! Dreadful.

One thing i liked about Doncaster, their goalie always looked to play it out short, no hoofball from them.

Their keeper couldnt kick for shit

I didn't think ours was much better either, and don't get me started on the number of times our players slipped over during the game!

I am not sure how fit he is, they trained indoors at the Cirencester Arena twice last week (Tuesday and Wednesday) and GR sat out both sessions. 

Just back.

Frustrating day overall but can't fault the effort of the team. A gift of a goal for Doncaster who I thought started quite brightly and I liked the look of their left winger who skinned Thomspson a couple of times early. After that, it was all us. The amount of balls we were putting into their box, we really should have won about 4-1. You could see clear as day Williams pulling out of rounding the keeper but I guess this is because the last time he went in with a keeper he got injured so that must have been at the back of his mind.

The back 4, De Vita and Bostock were the stand out players for me. I thought JB at times oozed class.

Its a real shame we don't have a 20 goal striker in this team as I think this is going to be the difference between promotion and mid table this year

Oh and Gary Roberts coming on for Rafa was a bad substitute. GR clearly has zero confidence, his first touch was a miscontrol which luckily he managed to rectify and make a neat pass and the chance he got on the box, swing your foot at it man! I think someone mentioned it but he never looked like he wanted the ball from Devera, he should have hugged the touchline but kept going infield meaning that Devera had to give the ball backwards to Ward.

On another note, it was quite refreshing to see that we weren't just launching the ball into the box second half and trying to work an opening. Ward got a lot of possession which he tried to use (not always well) and we worked the ball well, without resorting to lumping the thing into the mixer.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Roberts gone next month to be honest, it's just not happening for him here.

Maybe he just hasn't settled here. Has he been plying his trade oop north for most of his career?

I would be surprised, as I don't see anyone wanting him.

He has played 40+ games for Huddersfield in each of the last few seasons so it's fair to say that he doesn't have injury problems and has clearly been a consistent performer in a decent Huddersfield team.

I haven't seen him play but surely he can't be that bad? Is it just due to the hype when we signed him that people are so disappointed or is he Ricky Shakes all over again?

At least Shakes had some pace!

Its quite painful as we all want him to be a success but as the games progress, its just not happening.

He is just in that place where whatever he does 80% of it seems to go wrong.

This is clearly not his true level, he is far far better, but how long do you give him?

Out of the new players who came in it was Roberts who excited me the most  ;) Every time he plays I'm really wanting him to have blinder but as we know it just isnt happening for him. A goal or two may help his confidence but I'm now not so sure, sometimes players just don't settle at a new club.

I think everyone been a tad harsh on Roberts. I hope people don't go all Michael Pook on him, he isn't the only player out of form, he had some good performances. Give the lad a good chance.

Gary Roberts was toasting his performance with a rediculous cocktail round and also enjoyed my mates 18th century boxers 'tasche, in the Old Bank on Saturday night.

And? They don't have a mid-week game this week, fella's allowed out to relax isn't he?

Why the fuck was Jamie in the Old Bank???

He actually dragged me, Si and Alex there.....

And pauld, was merely passing comment fella, he was with a whole bunch of the players.

I know if I have a shit day at work I need a beer after...

Fair enough, sorry, sounded like you were having a dig, plenty do with this kind of thing.

He has, very rarely I admit, shown some class.

There is definatley a good player in there, his confidence is just at rock bottom.

Mainly the manager... Hope this doesn't lead to cocktailgate.

Hopefully things won't turn sours.

 It should be noted, that the acquisition of Roberts, was in direct contravention of Smeeton's 2nd Rule...namely don't have more than one Scouser around the club...things were OK with just McEveley.

I have absolute faith that Roberts will turn it round. Then I will turn round and tell that cunting Leeds fan behind me where to fucking shove it.

Is that the one that looks like a butch lezza?

I stood behind this thing at Notts County with her Town coat and Leeds hat on as she spent the whole game following the Leeds game on her phone.

Nah this is a bloke. He's actually from Yorkshire, so I'll give him that. Spends all game trying to be funny, making quips like. "Go on Wes! Get oop there!"

Northern Wit.

You want to listen to the cunt sat a couple of rows behind me. Lucien and Whits will know who i mean.

Fucking moaning old cunt.

We have an interesting selection of weirdos up by us, that don't understand the rules of football (or much else, to be fair).

It's lucky I'm such a mild mannered fellow, else I'd lose it at some of the shite we have to listen to.

Has bennett stabbed any of them?

You aren't up in the DRS are you?

There was a fella behind me who kept berating the linesman/ref for not calling Doncaster players for being offside from a goal kick.

Also, I think it might have been the same guy, but everytime we were fouled the guy was demanding a red card.

I hope he was being 'ironic' but he was certainly irritating.

Yeah, that sounds about right...

Bennett rarely goes these days, think he's getting into his golf - but he'd have called him a 'spastic cunt' by now, do doubt.

If these people annoy you so much why don't you just tell them to tone it down.

can you tone it down please Fola?

Can you tone it down please, Fola?

Yeah Fola, keep it down would ya?

Nawty

Hush now. You've been told :)

Shut it you slaaag, Fola.